MARVEL [draco malfoy]

Chapter Three

Chapter Three : The House of the Great Ones.

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"Welcome to House Slytherin, Marvel!" said an older girl delightfully, when Emma sat down at the Slytherin table. "My name's Gemma Farley, and I'm the Slytherin Prefect."

"Thank you, but please call me Emma." Emma replied with a nod and a smile directed towards her. She then turned back around just as another boy named Theodore Nott got sorted into Slytherin. Gemma Farley greeted him with the same message and enthusiasm as he sat down next to Emma, where the older students had cleared out space for the new ones.

The boy named Draco Malfoy was sat next to Farley, opposite Emma, and next to him sat a gaunt-looking ghost with silver blood staining his robes. She wrinkled her nose at the ghost and turned away promptly turned away, just as Pansy's name was called out.

"Emma Marvel, wasn't it?"

She turned back around, whilst Pansy was pronounced a Slytherin, and found Malfoy looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "That's me. And you are?"

"Draco Malfoy." He said, putting great emphasis on his surname. "Pleased to meet you."

Emma squinted at him, trying to place him in her memory. And then it clicked, "We've met before, in Flourish and Blotts, don't you remember? You were exceptionally—"

"Potter, Harry!"

Emma's words came to an abrupt halt and she turned around to find a black-haired boy staggering up towards the stool. He looked a little alarmed and panicked. From across the room, Emma stared at him. She did not personally know Harry Potter— in fact, she hadn't even known what he looked like before today. But she knew that if he hadn't been the only person in the world to have survived the Death Curse, she wouldn't be an orphan. She grumbled something under her breathe which not even she understood.

"Look at him, flaunting around. It's pathetic." Mafloy said with a sneer, as Potter got sorted into Gryffindor, "And in Gryffindor too. I was right all along, he's pathetic."

She ignored Malfoy's words, and instead smiled slightly in acknowledgement as she caught sight of the Weasley twins, who saw her and waved lightly, just as Harry Potter settled down next to Fred... or maybe George. Emma raised her hand to wave back too and turned back around to her housemates. Pansy came to sit down next to Emma just as Professor Albus Dumbledore got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome!" He said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Everyone in the Great Hall cheered and applauded and some laughed, but Emma only smiled in amusement. She'd heard about Albus Dumbledore, knew that he was a bit of an odd-ball. So his speech didn't really come to her as a surprise.

"People say he's a little bonkers." Pansy said once Dumbledore had settled back in his chair. Emma chose not to reply to that, didn't feel the need to disrespect a teacher.

"Is everyone here a Pureblood?" asked a stout little boy sitting further down the bench Draco Malfoy was on.

"I am." Malfoy chimed in.

"So am I." said Pansy, her voice mellow. A few others chimed in as well. Emma was the last to acknowledge her status. Then they dissolved into silence. The Slytherin table wasn't very loud compared to the other tables. The Gryffindors were busily chattering and bustling noisily. Ravenclaws were also creating a racket. Hupplepuffs remained gratifyingly quiet. And Slytherins, well, they were chatting, but in soft and hissing voices. After a while, the food from their plates had disappeared and the tables had cleaned themselves.